In Knous v. Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., the United States District Court for the District Court of Massachusetts awarded summary judgment to an employer on the employee's claims of unpaid wages and earned vacation at the time of discharge. As a result of...
Month: July 2020
The Use of International Arbitration for Banking and Finance Disputes: Tailoring the Arbitration Clause
As we have pointed out before, the use of international arbitration for banking and finance disputes continues to grow. The International Chamber of Commerce also recently came out with a report discussing this growing trend for financing disputes. If you have...
First Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Class Action Against Nestlé, Mars, and Hershey for Non-Disclosure of Potential Child and Slave Labor Issues
In Tomasella v. Nestlé, a politically charged case involving three of the United States' most prominent chocolate manufacturers, the First Circuit recently affirmed dismissal of a putative class action against Nestlé USA Inc., Mars, Inc., and the Hershey Company. The...
District Court Finds in Favor of T-Mobile in Zoning Dispute
In the recent Memorandum and Order issued in the case T-Mobile Northeast LLC v. The Town of Barnstable, the Massachusetts District Court held that the Town of Barnstable Planning Board ("the Planning Board") had violated the Telecommunications Act of 1996 ("the TCA")...
A Party Cannot Be Both Party and Arbitrator: First Circuit Finds Arbitration Clause Unconscionable
The First Circuit Court of Appeals recently found an agreement's arbitration clause unconscionable where one party was given almost unfettered control over the selection of the arbitrators. In Trout v. Organización Mundial de Boxeo, Inc., plaintiff Austin Trout...
Superior Court Holds That, Even With Advance Notice To Its Employees, An Employer May Not Avoid Its Obligations Under Sullivan v. Sleepy’s LLC To Pay Separate and Additional Overtime
In the recent Superior Court case of Martinez v. Burlington Motor Sports, Inc., et al., a defendant auto dealership moved to dismiss a commission-based employee's claim for overtime wages pursuant to G. L. c. 151, §§ 1A and 1B, arguing that the Massachusetts...
U.S. Supreme Court Allows Non-Signatories to Enforce Arbitration Agreements
In GE Energy Power Conversion France SAS v. Outokumpu Stainless USA, the United States Supreme Court was presented with the question whether domestic equitable estoppel doctrines that allow a non-signatory to an arbitration agreement to compel arbitration in disputes...
Appeals Court Rules that Settlement To Which Abutter Was Not a Party Does Not Deprive Zoning Board of Appeals of Jurisdiction Over Abutter’s Appeal
In Stevens v. Zoning Board of Appeals of Bourne, et. al., the Massachusetts Appeals Court upheld the Bourne Board of Selectman's decision to reinstate a cease and desist order against Plaintiff Lighthouse Realty Trust despite a Land Court settlement agreement between...
First Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Class Action Claims Against General Electric by Victims of Nuclear Disaster Due to Availability of Adequate Alternative Japanese Forum
In March 2011, a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake occurred just off the coast of Japan and triggered a 45-foot tsunami, which in turn breached the seawall and resulted in a series of explosions and a widescale nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power...
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